PHYSICS, PLAIN and SIMPLE

The Lumibay team's first visit to CERN in 2019, with Qian Sijin (right) leading a guided tour. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The scale of the experiments, as well as Qian's quiet passion, left a lasting impression.

Qian also hopes the film will inspire more young people to visit CERN one day, or even join its work themselves.

Transforming a physics course into a book was no simple task. Summarizing the vast history of physics in plain language required immense effort from Qian and the Lumibay team.

Chen describes Qian as meticulous. "He annotated every page by hand, editing word by word, even down to punctuation and tone marks," she says.

Qian's curiosity remains boundless, though he admits he doesn't always follow internet. "If we used any buzzwords or memes in the book, we had to explain them to him."